90 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



draw plants and Views for backgrounds to our present work, of which 

 I now send you a prospectus. If after all this, you should determine 

 not to go then I will write to you and tell you in what way you may 

 be of service to me during my absence. Besides Mr. Bell and Mr. 

 Sprague from Hingham, I expect my friend Harris to join me, and 

 in all probability a young gentleman from New York who is rich, 

 and very anxious to go along. 



Write soon, and believe me always, 



Your sincere friend, 



JOHN J. AUDUBON. 



It is evident from the circumstantial evidence that 

 the ladies of the Baird family were somewhat alarmed 

 at the suggestion that young Spencer should venture 

 into the wilds which their imagination painted as full 

 of rattlesnakes, Indians, fevers and untold perils. To 

 Baird's letter in which these anxieties are mentioned 

 Audubon replies as follows: 



From John J . Audubon to S. F. Baird. 



NEW YORK, February 10, 1843. 

 MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, 



I have this evening received yours of the yth Inst., and I see 

 very clearly that you would be at once ready to accompany me were 

 it not, for the opinions of your friends or relations to the contrary. 

 That your kind mother should feel great reluctance in the premises, 

 does not astonish me, as my own good Wife was much against my 

 going on such a long Journey; but her Strong Sense of what is best 

 for us all, and as well as in myself, the perfect confidence that our 

 Maker's Will will be done, she has now no Scruples of any kind, and 

 as for myself I rely as much as I ever have done in the Support of 

 the Almighty Being who has supported and secured me against 

 evils of all sorts in my Various undertakings, and with this Idea at 

 my heart, I feel confident that although an Old Man, I could under- 

 take any Journey whatever, and no matter of their lengths or diffi- 

 culties. But I wish you would assure your good mother that to go 

 to Yellow Stone River, in a good Steamer, as passengers by the courte- 



